Sacrificing a few points of market share in the U.S., believes, will go a long way to fattening up its bottom line, GM Vice Chairman Robert Lutz told reporters at the Detroit auto show, according to The Wall Street Journal.

"It's better to sell four million [vehicles] at $5,000 profit [each] than five million at no profit," Lutz said.

GM will avoid "junk" business practices such as big cash rebates, heavily subsidized leases and excessive sales to rental car companies that it has employed in the past to juice sales, he said.

"We are no longer doing the things that used to get us two to three extra points of market share," he said. "We've got to discipline ourselves."

In the future, GM plans to limit sales to rental companies and avoid sales promotions that would push out more cars than the market is willing to buy, he said.

"Within reason, it would be better to sell slightly fewer [vehicles] at higher margins," Mr. Lutz said. "We tried to sell more at lower margins and it's what got General Motors into trouble."

GM, which once had 50% market share in the U.S., finished 2006 with 24.6%, down from 26.2% in 2005. Lutz says that "Somewhere between 20% to 25% seems to be what the formerly dominant manufacturer can aspire to once the market opens to every brand in the world."